The present invention relates to a confining and restraining apparatus and system for pigs or other animals to facilitate their handling, especially during veterinary operations such as inoculations, castrations and the like.
The effective restraint of pigs and other livestock during veterinary operations has always presented a problem for farmers and veterinarians. The animal must be securely restrained for the protection of the person or persons administering the shot or other operation, hereinafter called the operator. At the same time, the restraining device must be constructed and used in a fashion which does not injure the animal.
Prior restraining devices have included simple chutes, clamping head gates, vise-like body clamps, and various combinations of these features. These devices have presented many problems.
In the case of simple confining chutes, the chute must necessarily be made large enough to accommodate a wide range of animal sizes. This means that smaller animals have plenty of room to maneuver to avoid the operator and, often to cause injury to themselves or the operator.
With a clamping head gate per se, the animals hind quarters are free to move about and kick and, again, the operator and/or the animal can be easily injured. Furthermore, to effectively restrain the animal, a head gate by itself must exert considerable pressure on the animal's neck which can result in injury to the animal as it struggles to free itself.
In the case of prior vise-like body clamps, to effectively restrain the animal by the vise action alone, these clamps must exert such pressure on the thoracic cavity of the animal that internal injury such as broken ribs and punctured lungs can result. Such body clamps are particularly damaging to the fetuses of pregnant animals.
Prior efforts to combine the above features into a single system have resulted in cumbersome devices which are not easily transportable, which include a considerable array of control levers and the like, often inconveniently located on several sides of the device, and which can require multiple operators for their effective use.
It is clear then, that a simple, reliable, and inexpensive restraining device which enables a single operator to conveniently load, restrain, and operate on an animal is needed. It is also clear that such an apparatus should be relatively easy to transport and should effectively restrain the animal without injuring either the animal or the operator.